Research paper on the use of ethnographic research methods in public relations

1. The use of ethnography in
public relations research
SARAH WILLIAMS
MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY
SARAH.WILLIAMS@MMU.AC.UK

2. Lack of ethnographic research in PR
“anthropology and the ethnographic tradition offers
public relations alternative lines of enquiry that can
reveal the „public relations in everyday life‟ both of its
practitioners and in the multiple con texts within
which it operates” L‟Etang, 2011: 24

3. Observation and/ or participation
Angrosino (2007: 6) identifies four main positions:
The complete participant
 Participant-as-observer
 Observer-as-participant
 The complete observer

4. „schism‟
 contextualising practice
 Moving PR scholarship “away from the centre and
towards the margins”,
Brown, 2012: 98

5. Limitations
 Ethical considerations
 The role of the researcher

6. TIME
 Willis & Trondman‟s premise that theory should be
used to illuminate the data
 A means of investigating and finding answers to
myriad questions which lie on the margins of
normative PR theory

8. Reflections and possibilities